Last Poems
Translations from the Book of Indian Love
Laurence Hope [Adela Florence Cory “Violet” Nicolson]
Dedication to Malcolm Nicolson
I, who of lighter love wrote many a verse,
Made public never words inspired by thee,
Lest strangers’ lips should carelessly rehearse
Things that were sacred and too dear to me.
Thy soul was noble; through these fifteen years
Mine eyes familiar, found no fleck nor flaw,
Stern to thyself, thy comrades’ faults and fears